when the procedure was established for the election of a President. It
was decreed that the Electoral College should meet on the first
Wednesday of January, the votes be counted by the House of
Representatives on the first Wednesday of February, and the President be
inaugurated on the first Wednesday of March. This March date was the
4th. March 4 has been Inauguration Day ever since.


=HOW A PRESIDENT IS INAUGURATED=

BY CLIFFORD HOWARD

As you will remember, Thomas Jefferson was the first President of our
country to be inaugurated at Washington. This took place in the year
1801, when our national capital was not much more than a year old; and
you may imagine that the city was a very different-looking place from
what it is to-day.

But now instead of a straggling town with a few muddy streets and about
three thousand inhabitants, Jefferson would find our national capital
one of the most beautiful cities on the face of the earth, with a
population of nearly three hundred thousand; and on March 4 he would
behold a scene such as he never dreamed of. Thousands of flags fly from
the house-tops and windows, bright-colored bunting in beautiful designs
adorns the great public buildings, all the stores and business houses
are gaily decorated with flags and streamers, and everything presents
the appearance of a great and glorious holiday, while the streets swarm
with the hundreds of thousands of people who have come to the city from
all parts of the country to take part in the grand celebration.